Google Catfight About 30 Years in the Making

In the three-decade-old letter, Gates writes, "As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software." He later asks, "Who can afford to do professional work for nothing?"

Gates really makes a case for protection of intellectual property rights that is strikingly similar to the one made today by Tom Rubin, Microsoft's associate general counsel, in a prepared speech for the Association of American Publishers.

Rubin asks, "Should business models that are built on the backs of others' intellectual property choose a path that respects IP, or a path that devalues it?...Google, after all, has not a single registration in the Copyright Office's database—it cannot 'opt out' of the law's obligation to respect the rights of others."

My Google Watch colleague Steve Bryant is right, the "MS-Google copyright fight ain't nothin' new." But the fundamental precepts about intellectual property as everyone knows it are a lot older than Google or even Microsoft.

What's that saying about how some things never change?